World Cup, Belo Horizonte: Circuit Kicks Off With Evening Prelims

Universal Sports Webcast Coverage of World Cup

BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil, October 10. THE first session of the FINA World Cup commenced with evening prelims at the Belo Horizonte, Brazil stop of the circuit.

Men's 100 freestyle
Sweden's Stefan Nystrand (47.92) topped the preliminary round of the men's 100 free. Brazil's Cesar Cielo (48.32), Brazil's Thiago Pereira (48.50) and Australia's Kyle Richardson (48.68) were among the top four.

Meanwhile, Brazil's Rodrigo Castro (48.68), Brazil's Guilherme Santos (48.72), Argentina's Federico Grabich (49.66) and Brazil's Arthur Rocha (49.71) rounded out the top eight.

Women's 200 freestyle
Russia's Kira Volodina paced qualifying in 1:58.40, while Sweden's Josefin Lillhage finished second in 2:01.79.

Brazilians made up the rest of the top eight. Tatiana Lemos-Barbosa (2:03.89), Ana Carolina Santos (2:03.90), Isabelle Longo (2:04.21), Juliana Kury (2:06.18), Monick Perez (2:07.67) and Jessica Cavalheiro (2:07.67) comprised the rest of the finale.

Men's 50 breaststroke
Brazil went 1-2-3 in the men's sprint breast. Felipe Lima led with a 27.39, while Eduardo Fischer (27.75) and Felipe Silva (27.91) rounded out the top three.

Australia's Christian Sprenger (27.94), Brazil's Joao Gomes Junior (28.08), Brazil's Felipe Santos (28.18), South Africa's Thabang Moeketsane (28.18) and Hungary's David Szele (28.21) made up the rest of the top eight.

Women's 100 breaststroke
American Tara Kirk, after a tumultuous summer, came back with a vengeance as she notched a time of 1:07.10 to lead prelims in the 100 breast. Wonder if Kirk can summon some extra energy tomorrow morning to scare Jessica Hardy's American record of 1:04.22 set at the 2008 World Short Course Championships.

Russia's Valentina Artemyeva finished second in 1:09.61, while Sweden's Rebecca Ejdervik took third in 1:09.89.

Tatiane Sakemi (1:10.57), Thamy Ventorin (1:10.92), Mariana Katsuno (1:11.15), Ana Carla Carvalho (1:12.41) and Michele Schmidt (1:12.50) of Brazil comprised the rest of the final eight.

Men's 400 IM slower seeds
Thiago Simon of Brazil won the three-man heat with a time of 4:26.57. Countrymen Alan Nagaoka (4:29.15) and Gabriel Pedrao (4:34.91) also swam.

Women's 100 butterfly
Brazil's Daynara De Paula clipped the 59-second mark with a top preliminary time of 58.96. She just missed her Brazilian standard of 58.92 set in May. Brooke Bishop of the U.S. placed second in 59.36, while Australia's Marieke Guehrer rounded out the sub-minute swims with a third-seeded 59.93.

South Africa's Mandy Loots (1:00.70) and Chanelle Van Wyk (1:00.97) and Brazil's Dandara Antonio (1:01.59) and Yana Medeiros (1:01.79) went fourth through seventh, while Australia's Jackie Staples pocketed the final transfer spot in 1:01.94.

Men's 100 backstroke
Russia's Stanislav Donets topped qualifying in 52.94, while Brazil's Daniel Orzechowski (53.54) and Leonardo Guedes (53.59) made up the top three.

Randall Bal of the U.S., meanwhile, will be looking to make it 22-straight backstroke wins in the World Cup after sweeping the events last year. He touched fourth in 53.65.

Brazil's Glauber Silva (55.19), Argentina's Federico Grabich (55.23), Brazil's Fabio Santi (56.50) and Brazil's Rafael Costa (56.79) claimed the rest of the top eight spots.

Women's 50 backstroke
Carolina Henao of Colombia paced the field with a time of 27.82. Brazil's Fabiola Molina took second in 27.93, while South Africa's Chanelle Van Wyk touched third in 28.38.

Brazil's Etiene Medeiros (28.93), Australia's Sophie Edington (29.04), Singapore's Lynette Ng (29.49), Brazil's Daynara De Paula (29.75) and Brazil's Juliana Kury (29.76) completed the championship final.

Men's 200 butterfly
Leonardo De Deus of Brazil claimed the top seed with a time of 2:00.23, while compatriots Kaio Almeida (2:00.94) and Eric Felix (2:02.16) took second and third, respectively.

South Africa's Sebastien Rousseau placed fourth in 2:02.04, while Brazil's Wesley Mancio (2:02.85), Raphael Mattioli (2:03.35), Marcos Oliveira (2:04.72) and Luiz Azarias (2:04.97) earned the rest of the championship spots.

Women's 200 IM
South Africa's Katheryn Meaklim led the way in the shorter medley with a time of 2:16.82. Brazil's Joanna Maranhao-Melo finished second in 2:17.11, while South Africa's Mandy Loots (2:17.39) and Australia's Jackie Staples (2:19.83) were among the top four.

The rest of the finale spots went to Brazilians Larissa Cieslak (2:20.49), Eloisa Bassani (2:21.69), Julia Volkmann (2:22.00) and Julia Siqueira (2:22.97).

Men's 400 freestyle
Brazil took the top three spots with Armando Negreiros (3:51.99), Mauricio Torres (3:53.39) and Leonardo Fim (3:54.37) topping the field.

Olympic gold medalist in the 1500 free, Ous Mellouli of Tunisia, checked in with a fourth-place 3:54.76 just a week after swimming at the RCP Tiburon Mile.

Brazilians Lucas Azevedo (3:55.04), Matheus Ribeiro (3:55.23), Rodrigo Castro (3:55.28) and Conrado Chede captured the last three spots.

Women's 50 freestyle
Brooke Bishop of the U.S. continued her strong day by garnering the top seed in the sprint free. She touched in 24.80, just a second off Dara Torres' American record of 23.82 set at the 2007 Berlin World Cup stop.

Sweden's Therese Alshammar, who recently announced her change of training venue to Florida, took second in 25.43. Australia's Marieke Guehrer finished third in 25.48, while Sweden's Josefin Lillhage placed fourth in 25.63.

Brazil's Tatiana Lemos-Barbosa (25.71), Juliana Kury (25.82), Roberta Albino (26.25) and Alessandra Marchioro (26.33) completed the top eight.

Men's 200 breaststroke
Australia's Christian Sprenger cruised in prelims with easily the best time in the event when he clocked a 2:10.99. Brazil's Thiago Parravicini came the closest with a second-place 2:15.01, while Alan Nagaoka of Brazil took third in 2:15.09.

Gabriel Souza (2:15.39), Tales Cerdeira (2:15.51), Diego Santos (2:20.18) and Rafael Murad (2:20.78) of Brazil finished fourth through seventh, while Mark Tan of Singapore placed eighth in 2:21.84.

Men's 100 IM
Two of Brazil's swimmers will battle in the 100 IM final as Henrique Rodrigues (54.77) and Thiago Pereira (55.98) went 1-2. Australia's Kyle Richardson took third in 56.14, while Ous Mellouli of Tunisia showed some speed with a fourth-place 56.47.

Brazil's Renato Barufi (57.11) and Guilherme Santos (57.46) placed fifth and sixth, while Hungary's Peter Bordas (57.69) and Germany's Dimitri Colupaev (58.00) wrapped up the final field.

Women's 200 backstroke
Brazil's Joanna Maranhao-Melo topped prelims in the 200 back with a time of 2:13.72, while Colombia's Carolina Henao took second in 2:14.08. Brazil's Fernanda Alvarenga finished third in 2:15.74, while Australians Jackie Staples (2:17.19) and Sophie Edington (2:19.15) went 4-5.

Brazil's Juliana Kury (2:19.57), Rebeca Bretanha (2:21.93) and Andressa Barduzzi (2:22.44) touched sixth through eighth.

Men's 50 butterfly
Olympic gold medalist Cesar Cielo of Brazil cruised in the sprint fly with a time of 23.40. Fellow Brazilians qualified second through fourth as Thiago Pereira (23.55), Candido Silva Junior (23.61) and Nicholas Santos (23.66) made up the top four.

Russia's Evgeny Korotyshkin (23.90) took fifth with the rest of the championship spots going to Brazilians Thiago Sickert (24.23), Tales Cerdeira (24.31) and Guilherme Santos (24.35).

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